A Summerland winery is the first to join the International Wineries for Climate Action (IWCA).

Okanagan Crush Pad announced on Tuesday, May 10, that it has been accepted as an applicant member to the IWCA.

The winery team will have a year to meet the requirements to join as a full member. One of the requirements includes maintaining an audited baseline greenhouse gas inventory.

“Once this is complete, we will commit to annual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions achieving a 33% reduction by 2030 and net-zero by 2050,” said OCP’s CEO, Darryl Brooker.

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Founded by Familia Torres (Penedes, Spain) and Jackson Family Wines (California, USA) in 2019, the IWCA seeks to create climate change mitigation strategies and decarbonize the wine industry.

“I am proud that the winery team is devoted to this process and to making a full effort to take our land stewardship commitment to the next level,” said OCP founder, Christine Coletta. “We started our sustainability push in 2011 by converting our vineyards to organic farming and then in 2014 obtaining organic certification for our winemaking facility. We can now push this commitment beyond farming and winemaking to incorporate all aspects of our business.”

Members share best practices that lessen climate change impacts in vineyard and winery operations so that the global wine industry can act collectively to decarbonize, applying direct solutions that avoid purchasing carbon offset credits.

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